SAND PEBBLES, THE (2CD)

Finally! Complete 2-CD presentation of all-time classic Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack from legendary Robert Wise film with Steve McQueen (in his only Oscar-nominated performance), Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen. Newly re-mixed, re-mastered from original multi-track stereo elements vaulted at 20th Century Fox, 2-CD set features everything in stereo (including stereo CD premiere of "Repel Boarders") plus several previously unreleased cues, numerous never-before-heard alternates as well as Lionel Newman-recorded source music heard in important brothel scenes where Maily (Marayat Andriane) is introduced. Score itself has truly interesting architecture: Goldsmith creates not one but two distinct main themes, yet draws each from the same first four notes! Go one direction, get his military theme for titular gunboat, go the other direction, get his famous major-key love theme for Jake (McQueen), Shirley (Bergen). In addition, composer creates haunting minor-key secondary theme for Frenchie (Attenborough), Maily. Highlights are many but getting spotlight is premiere release of brief all-important cue where Jake first sees "San Pablo" on docks at night. It is here Goldsmith introduces his four widely-spaced notes on French horn, launching military theme that anchors score. Another highlight is premiere release of aggressive, action-oriented alternate for "Commence Firing". Sequence was re-scored, toned down for final production. Both versions are presented here. Strong liner notes by Julie Kirgo, background details by co-producer Michael Matessino, overall supervision by Nick Redman plus both original artwork campaign, 1966 album cover art round out exciting package. Lionel Newman conducts. A genuine film score classic!

Share

Finally! Complete 2-CD presentation of all-time classic Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack from legendary Robert Wise film with Steve McQueen (in his only Oscar-nominated performance), Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen. Newly re-mixed, re-mastered from original multi-track stereo elements vaulted at 20th Century Fox, 2-CD set features everything in stereo (including stereo CD premiere of "Repel Boarders") plus several previously unreleased cues, numerous never-before-heard alternates as well as Lionel Newman-recorded source music heard in important brothel scenes where Maily (Marayat Andriane) is introduced. Score itself has truly interesting architecture: Goldsmith creates not one but two distinct main themes, yet draws each from the same first four notes! Go one direction, get his military theme for titular gunboat, go the other direction, get his famous major-key love theme for Jake (McQueen), Shirley (Bergen). In addition, composer creates haunting minor-key secondary theme for Frenchie (Attenborough), Maily. Highlights are many but getting spotlight is premiere release of brief all-important cue where Jake first sees "San Pablo" on docks at night. It is here Goldsmith introduces his four widely-spaced notes on French horn, launching military theme that anchors score. Another highlight is premiere release of aggressive, action-oriented alternate for "Commence Firing". Sequence was re-scored, toned down for final production. Both versions are presented here. Strong liner notes by Julie Kirgo, background details by co-producer Michael Matessino, overall supervision by Nick Redman plus both original artwork campaign, 1966 album cover art round out exciting package. Lionel Newman conducts. A genuine film score classic!

Like most people, the first thing that comes
to my mind about September, 2001 is 9/11. I’m fortunate that right behind
that come thoughts of Jerry Goldsmith and Robert Wise, both of whom were
part of my day-to-day business at that moment in time.

As the tragedy unfolded we were in the midst of preparing for a September
21 Hollywood Bowl concert at which twenty minutes of Star Trek: The Motion
Picture would be performed live to picture. A few nights earlier, Bob Wise was attending a 60th anniversary screening of Citizen Kane, which he’d edited, while I was
nearby at the Bowl tech rehearsal, charged by Jerry with making sure all was as it should
be (talk about responsibility). In addition to work on the music itself, which involved procuring
an incredible variety of percussion and the famous “blaster beam,” details were
also being finalized for bringing Mssrs. Wise and Goldsmith, their wives and some of our
Star Trek production team together in the best boxes in the house. Despite the concert’s
sci-fi emphasis (Goldsmith’s Planet of the Apes, Alien and Star Trek V were also on the program),
the first thought I had when I saw the two geniuses together in public was, to my
own surprise, “My God, 35 years ago these guys made The Sand Pebbles.” Throughout the
evening, that title was mentioned countless times by fans and colleagues who stopped
by to experience this historic reunion.

Only ten days after the events that changed the world, the subject of anti-American
sentiment was particularly resonant. So too was the theme of mankind’s propagation
of war … as we found out four nights later at a 50th anniversary screening of Wise’s The
Day the Earth Stood Still (Bernard Herrmann’s theme had also been played at the Bowl
concert). While Robert Wise was never known for a particular visual stamp, a common
thread running through his films is an unflinchingly merciless tackling of tough issues. The Sand Pebbles, his favorite of his forty films, is perhaps the definitive expression of
that.

Goldsmith’s music is equally unflinching—we feel the “Death of a Thousand Cuts”
rather than just listen to a cue with that title … and his two love themes manage to carry
longing and foreboding within their beautiful melodies. This common ability to get to
the heart of the matter is what makes the Wise/Goldsmith collaboration so ideal and
unique. Even though they only made one other film together (yielding, of course, one of
cinema’s most loved and recognized scores), they remained close friends over the years
because they shared a way of looking at the world that transcended their professional
work. Their first collaboration captured it so perfectly that there was nothing else to say
until they together breached the final frontier over a decade later.

I’ve been honored to be associated with both of these films and scores. Shortly
after assembling the first expanded edition soundtrack of The Sand Pebbles, I worked
on the special features for the first DVD release of the film, done while Robert Wise Productions
was based at Paramount for the “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek. This included
a commentary with Bob Wise and some of the actors (sadly, Jerry had a toothache and couldn’t participate). Then, after both men had left us, came the Blu-Ray
release for which I conformed the music for an isolated score track that
wrapped around a new commentary featuring this album’s producer, Nick
Redman, leading Jon Burlingame and Lem Dobbs through a discussion of
the film’s production and legacy with, of course, an emphasis on the music.
We even got to kick off the track with Jerry himself, excerpting the audio
from my interview with him done for the Star Trek project.

That seemed like a fitting capper but I’m delighted that there was one
more to come in the form of the enclosed full restoration of the score for The
Sand Pebbles. The process began with recalling the 2? 24-track
protection masters made from the original 35mm multi-track
magnetic elements in the 1990s. Retransferred at 96k/24 bit
resolution, this facilitated the repair of each separate track of
audio and the finessing of balance, equalization and stereo
steering to bring out the dynamic brilliance of the Fox scoring
stage and the studio orchestra’s consummate performance
under the exacting baton of Lionel Newman. The original ¼?
1966 album master thankfully provided a stereo version of the
cue “Repel Boarders,” which survived in the Fox material only as
a monaural dub. Previously unreleased cues fill out the first-ever
complete presentation of the score on Disc 1, while a second
disc features album versions, alternates and six pieces of period
source music recorded for the film. It is indeed the definitive
version of The Sand Pebbles, and I have no doubt that both Bob and Jerry are
smiling. Listeners will certainly do the same, even as the music takes us on a
journey into deeper thoughts.